An eclectic assortment of stuff: food, archaeology, fun, books, history, geekery, etc.
Posted in strange stuff on Jun 30th, 2008
This is the 100th anniversary of the Tunguska event! From the BBC: Fire in the sky: Tunguska at 100.
At 7:17am on 30 June 1908, an immense explosion tore through the forest of central Siberia.
Some 80 million trees were flattened over an area of 2,000 square km (800 square miles) near the Tunguska River.
The blast was [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Jun 28th, 2008
From the New Zealand Herald: Insights into original explorers.
A replica 3000-year-old Pacific canoe, modelled on the world’s first ocean-going vessels, has been tested in a world-leading Auckland wind tunnel.
Preliminary results show the canoes of the type sailed from New Guinea to Fiji, Tonga and Samoa about 1000BC were so well designed they could probably sail [...]
Posted in health, history & archaeology on Jun 27th, 2008
From discovery.com: Biblical Text-Writing May Have Poisoned Monks.
Medieval bones from six different Danish cemeteries reveal that monks who wrote Biblical texts and other religious materials may have been exposed to toxic mercury, which was used to formulate just one of their ink colors: red.
The study, which will be published in the August issue of the [...]
Posted in Canada, history & archaeology on Jun 27th, 2008
From the National Post: Inuit oral stories could solve mystery of Franklin expedition.
More than 150 years after the disappearance of the Erebus and Terror — the famously ill-fated ships of the lost Franklin Expedition — fresh clues have emerged that could help solve Canadian history’s most enduring mystery.
A Montreal writer set to publish a book [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Jun 27th, 2008
From The Independent: Dig shows Paris is 3,000 years older than first thought.
Paris has long been known to be a very old city but its history as a settlement has just been extended by more than 3,000 years.
An archaeological dig, whose findings were revealed yesterday, moves back Paris’s first known human occupation to about 7600BC, [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Jun 25th, 2008
From discovery.com: Odysseus’ Bloody Homecoming Dated to 1178 B.C..
Using clues from star and sun positions mentioned by the ancient Greek poet Homer, scholars think they have determined the date when King Odysseus returned from the Trojan War and slaughtered a group of suitors who had been pressing his wife to marry one of them.
It was [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Jun 25th, 2008
From the International Herald Tribune: Microbes eating away at pieces of history.
At Angkor Wat, the dancers’ feet are crumbling.
The palatial 12th-century Hindu temple, shrouded in the jungles of Cambodia, has played host to a thriving community of cyanobacteria ever since unsightly lichens were cleaned off its walls nearly 20 years ago. The microbes have not [...]
Posted in animals, birds, insects, etc on Jun 25th, 2008
From EurekAlert: Migrating songbirds learn survival tips on the fly.
Migrating songbirds take their survival cues from local winged residents when flying through unfamiliar territory, a new Queen’s University-led study shows.
It’s a case of "When in Rome, do as the Romans do," says biologist Joseph Nocera, who conducted the research while working as an NSERC Postdoctoral [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Jun 24th, 2008
From National Geographic: "Arab" Found in Danish Iron-Age Grave.
An ancient Dane with Arabian genes is part of a DNA study that suggests Scandinavians of 2,000 years ago were more genetically diverse than today.
Researchers say the Iron Age man may have been a soldier serving on the Roman Empire’s northern frontier or a descendant of female [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Jun 24th, 2008
From Physorg: Britain’s last Neanderthals were more sophisticated than we thought.
An archaeological excavation at a site near Pulborough, West Sussex, has thrown remarkable new light on the life of northern Europe’s last Neanderthals. It provides a snapshot of a thriving, developing population – rather than communities on the verge of extinction.
"The tools we’ve found at [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Jun 22nd, 2008
From The Herald: City’s oldest surviving road found by archaeology dig in Pollok Park.
The ancient pathways pounded by St Mungo as he built his church at the tiny fishing settlement called Glas Gu are positively futuristic by comparison.
After lying concealed by vegetation and woodland for what may be almost 3000 years, archaeologists have unearthed what [...]
Posted in BC on Jun 22nd, 2008
Here’s a a Coast Salish legend. From the Camosun College website: The Legend of Camossung.
After the flood, the transformer Haylas was travelling with Raven and Mink teaching the people how things were to be done.
They found a young girl, named Camossung and her grandfather. She was crying, so Haylas asked her why. She answered, "My [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Jun 22nd, 2008
From discovery.com: Coils of Ancient Egyptian Rope Found in Cave.
The ancient Egyptian’s secret to making the strongest of all rigging ropes lies in a tangle of cord coils in a cave at the Red Sea coast, according to preliminary study results presented at the recent congress of Egyptologists in Rhodes.
Discovered three years ago by archaeologists [...]
Posted in gardening on Jun 21st, 2008
I thought that the keyhole gardening method was pretty spiffy (and it is!) but this might be even more appealing. Here’s Patricia Lanza’s article from Mother Earth News: Lasagna Gardening.
If someone told me years ago that he or she had found a way to do an end run around the sweat equity of traditional gardening, [...]
Posted in Canada, history & archaeology on Jun 20th, 2008
From EurekAlert: Ancient fort opens new chapter in First Nations’ history.
A fortified village that pre-dates European arrival in Western Canada and is the only one of its kind discovered on the Canadian plains is yielding intriguing evidence of an unknown First Nations group settling on the prairies and is rekindling new ties between the Siksika [...]
Posted in DNA on Jun 20th, 2008
From the Beeb: Adoptees use DNA to find surname.
Male adoptees are using consumer DNA tests to predict the surnames carried by their biological fathers, the BBC has learned.
They are using the fact that men who share a surname sometimes have genetic likenesses too.
By searching DNA databases for other males with genetic markers matching their own, [...]
Posted in dogs on Jun 20th, 2008
From Why more offices are going to the dogs.
At Sermo, a Web company whose offices resemble a Romper Room for adults – complete with beanbags and arcade machines – finding the CEO is easy. Just look for his dogs. This particular afternoon, Daniel Palestrant’s two dachshunds act like draft stoppers outside their master’s conference-room door. [...]
Posted in animals, birds, insects, etc on Jun 20th, 2008
From discovery.com: Apes Plan for the Future.
What goes on in an ape’s mind might be more similar to our own way of thinking than previously realized, suggests a new study that found chimpanzees and orangutans plan for their futures. [continue]
Posted in history & archaeology, religion on Jun 20th, 2008
From National Geographic: Ancient Christian "Holy Wine" Factory Found in Egypt.
Two wine presses found in Egypt were likely part of the area’s earliest winery, producing holy wine for export to Christians abroad, archaeologists say.
Egyptian archaeologists discovered the two presses with large crosses carved across them near St. Catherine’s Monastery, a sixth-century A.D. complex near Mount [...]
Posted in environment, food, gardening on Jun 19th, 2008
From Celesias: Keyhole Gardens Lock Out Starvation in Lesotho.
Sometimes, the best solutions are low-tech. For example, in the tiny African country of Lesotho, a simple organic gardening technique called "keyhole gardening" is allowing people to produce enough vegetables to nourish their families without having to invest in costly technology, fuel, fertilizer or pesticides. As the [...]
From Now Public: Insects on the menu for Vij’s restaurant.
The world is in a frenzy to help protect the environment and lead ‘green lifestyles’. Meeru Dhalwala, the chef and co-owner with husband Vikram Vij, is adopting this go-green attitude for their Vancouver based restaurant- in the form of BUGS.
That’s right! They have decided to [...]
Posted in history & archaeology, religion on Jun 18th, 2008
From UKTV: Remains of medieval bishops identified.
Archaeologists have identified the remains of medieval bishops buried at Whithorn Priory in Galloway, Scotland, 600 years ago.
The bones of the six bishops were discovered [continue]
The Withorn Priory and Museum website has a Withorn Discovieries page, but there’s nothing about the medieval bishops there yet. (The site still worth [...]
Posted in animals, birds, insects, etc on Jun 18th, 2008
From Carl Zimmer at The Loom: Stockholm Syndrome For Moths.
A caterpillar’s life is not an easy one. The plants that it eats make toxins to make it sick. Birds swoop in to pluck it away and feed it to their chicks. But the most horrific threat comes from wasps that use caterpillars as hosts for [...]
Posted in strange stuff on Jun 18th, 2008
From Atypical Events: World’s Weirdest Wedding Customs.
All over the world, people practice numerous wedding customs that have been passed on through many generations. Although each has a long history of meaning and significance, many just seem strange and out of place in today’s culture.
Check out some of the historical wedding customs that are still practiced [...]
Posted in science on Jun 18th, 2008
From the Guardian: Face of fear: how a terrified expression could keep you alive.
The evolutionary mystery of why our faces contort when we are scared has been solved by a team of Canadian neuroscientists.
When our facial expression shifts to one of eye-bulging, nostril-flaring fear, our ability to sense attackers or other imminent danger improves dramatically, [...]